Now what do I do?

I was thinking of why exactly did I write "Stop. Rewind." as a title for this blog and "Pause. Just for a moment." for my other blog and realized simply that I use both blog for exactly that purpose (according to the titles). I use the other blog to pause just for a moment, to notice some of the things I need to notice; like when you pause to look at the horizon or to smell flowers. Somehow I use this blog to stop and rewind, to try and understand (maybe); to look back or to simply remember those "pause moments". I don't exactly have a clear distinction between both blogs but somehow there's still a pattern that follows for each; so here I am rewinding a bit on what I saw on that very moment I paused.

There's this Garfield comic strip (minus Garfield) I've read lately where Jon Arbuckle wakes up to a good morning and lies back down again wondering "Now what do I do?". It sucks having to ask that question because somehow I feel like I always have to know what to do, that I should have plans laid out for today or for my future, but then that is not always the case for me. Like Jon Arbuckle, I have had days when I wake up to a good morning and lie down again realizing that there's nothing really more I can do or that I don't know exactly what to do.

There are a lot of topics I can cover just based on the previous paragraph, like how God wants us to live our lives, or about the best laid plans, or about asking a different question, etc. I guess if I would like to... I'll try to blog about all those things someday but for this one it's a different thing. For quite some time (and I guess a bit until now) I have had a lot of "free time", everyone's always busy, always out, always whatever that somehow I am stuck at home (or wherever I am at the moment) and alone. I don't have a boyfriend so I don't have someone who I can just call and ask to be with me right then and there. I used to hate that loneliness. I hated the feeling of not knowing what to do next, or I guess, what to do right now.

I never would have thought that God was using my loneliness. In my loneliness I grew closer to Him. I've had more intimate times with Him because of that loneliness. Also, He made me discover a lot of things I never would have noticed if I was not in that state. There was so much pain in that loneliness but even more joy because of it. Just another example of how God uses what we consider a bad thing for something really really good. Now, I've learned to love that loneliness (ok maybe not love but more of to not feel bad about it), though it still really makes me yearn more for my future heart. Now what do I do? I guess I still don't have good answers for that just that I'll enjoy the entire day with my heavenly father and continue on with this journey.

Building Bridges

Communication is an important part in our daily lives. Being able to share ideas, divulge secrets, open up, or to simply have small talks, these are things that we live with every day. In school we were taught how language plays a role in the whole notion of a community. Simply put, language is what connects us with each other. We know that if another person speaks Tagalog, even if he really is not Filipino, we somehow welcome him into our own little community. In that sense, we create our own notion of a community based on who we understand and those that could not understand is separated from the community. Although this is not applicable to all and this is not entirely the whole picture, lets face it we actually find it easier to communicate with those within our "imagined" community because we have a certain level of understanding.

Now I am not really going to focus on language and its role in the community; I will instead focus on communicating within our own community. I speak of community not so much in the large sense (schools/barangays/countries etc.) but I speak of community in the "imagined" sense, meaning those we feel an affinity to, those who we feel we are somehow connected with. For some finding a community where one belong is very hard, for some a piece of cake, but we all long to be a part of a community. We have this community of friends, community of believers, our family, school mates, and so much more; and we feel a connection with them. Now this connection is based on communication, the deeper level of communication the deeper connection we have with each other. The deeper connection we have, the stronger our bonds become, and our community will be intact for a long time.

As Christians, we are all made for fellowship, with this in mind we understand that it is important for us to take good care of our community. How then do we do this? The most important of all is that we always put GOD first and in the center of our relationships. Next is communication. As I have stated, communication plays a huge role in strengthening relationships; we must be able to trust each other and to remove our masks so that we can open up more to each other. TRUST is very important. Also, we must always be wary of what we say; we must be slow to speak, think clearly of what is it that we want to say. Some might think that what we say is simply just words, but what some do not see is that words can really make or break a relationship. Being wary not only means being careful with your words, it also means NOT gossiping, NOT backstabbing, being careful with jokes, and a lot more. God wants us to build each other up and not break each other apart.

Not only are we made for fellowship but we were also made to bring more people to Christ to be part of God's community. Again, we see the importance of communication. We must share God's word to others, share His hope, His grace, His faithfulness, and everything about Him to others. If we do not communicate with them, then we would not be able to fulfill one of our life's purpose.

Though I may not know a lot about this matter for I am just learning about communication in a deeper sense myself, I know for a fact how important it really is. The best part about communication is that it is a bridge, it connects us with each other, it also connects us with God. Plus, we get to learn more about each other and about other things through communication. We must never stop communicating, stopping would just build walls around us, and I guess that was what God wanted me to learn through all of these things (sorry for just going into circles I really have a hard time making sense of my thoughts) to stop building walls.